A Maasai man tells the story of his splendid and diverse territory of life in Tanzania.
WORDS, IMAGES, AND VIDEO Alois Porokwa
Oldoinyo Sambu mountain.
I didn’t know why Ndakaji Leyian was so perplexed when, back in 1978, he asked me where I was studying. Ndakaji is a Maasai Elder, now about eighty years of age. In 1978, I was studying in a secondary school forty kilometers from the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha. The area where the school was is called Oldoinyo Sambu. Ndakaji argued that there was no secondary school in Oldoinyo Sambu at all.
The Oldoinyo Sambu he was referring to is the one near Emboreet village, which he knows well since he was born there and has an immense knowledge of the whole Emboreet ecosystem, culture, and tradition. It took me years to grasp and understand the question asked by Ndakaji and the significance of Oldoinyo Sambu.
It took me years to grasp and understand the significance of Oldoinyo Sambu.
Oldoinyo Sambu is a mountain near Emboreet village, approximately twenty kilometers from the village center. One of the mountain’s many characteristics is that it is the highest peak in the village area. In the Maa language, oldoinyo means “mountain,” while sambu is a mixed color with brown and white stripes.
A variety of Indigenous medicines.
It is believed that it is an ancestral area with a very deep hole at the top, with caves in which our ancestors hid during tribal wars for centuries immemorial. With its diverse flora and fauna, it is rich in traditional medicines and has the best pastures during the dry season, with wild fruits for both livestock and people. Wildlife abounds, and some places bear the names of their dominant species, as in the case of Loosirwai, meaning “place of the eland.” The mountain is an attraction to people who love nature, with a spectacular viewpoint at the top that one can climb up to and enjoy the ecosystem. This ancestral area is still respected, despite being at risk from human activities and climate change.
The rural areas in which Maasai pastoralists live are arid and have a harsh environment and climate. The region is increasingly characterized by a succession of droughts. Social services are poor, and communities are hard-struck by poverty and illiteracy. All that makes people subject to hunger and disease and deprived of information and opportunities they should have access to according to the sustainable development agenda.
In the pastoralists’ livelihood, water and pasture are the most important natural resources. Without one or the other, the Maasai way of life cannot subsist. Water is, of course, essential for life and health, but also for food security, in terms of its connection to livestock and other uses. Especially in the dry season, both livestock and people rely heavily on wells. So, in Maasai communities wells are very important features to be conserved. Oldoinyo Sambu is rich in natural wells, particularly around the dry river called Olndulelei. Wells are named after vegetation or even ancestors and provide water to not only livestock and people but wildlife too. One of the famous wells close to Oldoinyo Sambu is Lelerai. I remember that in 2008, when we moved our family’s cattle to Lelerai after it started raining, riding on a Land Rover, an elephant almost killed us chasing after the vehicle. We were lucky to be able to hide in one of the anthills, so the elephant could not see us.
Wells in Oldoinyo Sambu area in the dry river called Olndulelei.
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Cattle drinking water in the conserved natural wells in Olndulelei.
Another important characteristic of Oldoinyo Sambu is having a variety of traditional medicines. Understandably, Maasai have a wealth of Indigenous traditional medicine for the health of both people and livestock. They use herbs, shrubs, barks, seeds, and fruits that have medicinal value for different ailments. They also have medicines that are stimulants for different reasons. Many places along the Oldoinyo Sambu escarpment and its neighboring area, such as Loomamen, Loormukutani, Loorgum, Lolndepesi, Loorderkes, Loorman’gua, bear names that correspond to the medicinal species available there.
Maasai have a wealth of Indigenous traditional medicine for the health of both people and livestock.
In Emboreet village there is a famous traditional healer woman by the name of Kipitet Oloipaa. This lady always goes up the mountain looking for medicines to heal people. I asked her why she goes there and not elsewhere. Her answer was, “The place has not only Indigenous medicine but also a spiritual significance, facilitating quick healing for people and even livestock.” She visits it as a pilgrimage area, as a retreat for reflection and solace, and as a place to hear internal calls, where she can be given a message of service to people who are in need of nature’s deliverance.
Medicinal plants as well as other vegetation and pasture varieties that are minimal in other areas abound in the Oldoinyo Sambu ecosystem. This makes the mountain the center for livestock keeping. Beekeeping is also important here. And, due to the availability of medicinal plants, herbs, water, and other natural features, Oldoinyo Sambu is a cultural, ceremonial, and ritual place.
Oldoinyo Sambu is a cultural, ceremonial, and ritual place.
The oreteti ceremonial tree (Ficus natalensis) is mostly found along the Oldoinyo Sambu escarpment. It is the most respected tree in Maasai culture and tradition.
Various traditional and cultural ceremonies are performed on the mountain under the sacred oreteti tree (Ficus natalensis). One of the ceremonies is conducted when rain is late in Emboreet village or when women suffer delays in child delivery. Women who experience delayed delivery are taken to a natural well naked. There, a sheep is slaughtered, and the women are ritually smeared with sheep fat and sprayed with milk while people pray and sing all around. Most women deliver successfully after the ceremony.
For centuries, Oldoinyo Sambu has been a site for orpul. Orpul is a retreat in the forest, away from home, where Maasai warriors go to re-energize before the dry season. The most salient characteristic of orpul is that it should be at a good distance from home in the forest, with maximum privacy and isolation from normal circumstances, along with various taboos and restrictions. Fat bulls are slaughtered and the meat is eaten, along with soup mixed with various traditional medicines. Young children and old men are sometimes taken there for medication. It is a place for newly circumcised boys to recuperate and achieve rapid growth, acquiring physical and mental resilience.
Left: Orpul hut where people stay near Oldoinyo Sambu, eating meat and soup mixed with Indigenous traditional medicine. Right: Meat hung and stored in the traditional way.
In 1990, I had a month-long stay in orpul in an area two kilometers from Oldoinyo Sambu known as Endogom. This was my first time going to orpul. There, one sleeps outside, amid lions roaring through the night, eating meat and drinking the soup mixed with traditional medicines. I did not plan to go there but was pushed to do so by my uncle Tin’gide Olengoijie, who came home to find that I had been very sick for months, having returned from several hospital stays without any relief. He suggested to my father that he should take me to the forest to try orpul. I went there, and after two weeks of eating meat and drinking soup mixed with traditional medicines, my health went back to normal. I was suffering from rheumatism, and from that time to the present the ailment has not reappeared. From that experience, I made it my practice to go to orpul whenever I would get time.
Besides eating meat and drinking soup mixed with medicine, children and young warriors learn Maasai culture and tradition through storytelling, proverbs, riddles, singing, and making various handcrafts during orpul. There is no formal education, but they sit around the fire telling and listening. They are taught about various medicinal plants, their uses, and the importance of conserving them. So, when men are in orpul, they have an opportunity to share Indigenous knowledge among themselves and also transfer that knowledge to the children and youths who attend orpul.
Due to climate change and human activities, these traditional areas are in danger of being unsuitable.
Due to climate change and human activities, these traditional areas are in danger of being unsuitable for orpul if appropriate measures are not taken. Some trees, shrubs, and herbs that used to provide Indigenous medicines have diminished. Also, young people have lost interest in orpul because they have adapted to “modernity” and thus shun the practice as obsolete. They prefer to sell slaughtered steers and engage in other activities instead of “wasting” time in the forest.
Young warriors participating in a blessing ceremony. An Elder counsels the young boys and prepares grass, leaves, and other ceremonial materials to pass on the community’s traditions and knowledge to future generations.
Inside her smoky hut, Mama Seela Nengai Lemtunde, a traditional birth attendant, cleaning a milk calabash with medicinal tree smoke from Oldoinyo Sambu mountain. Photo: Benedict Alois
Some medicinal trees, shrubs, and herbs are taken from the Oldoinyo Sambu medicinal area for use in cleaning the milking vessels, calabashes known as ingotiok in the Maa language, before and after milking the cows. The medicinal wood is chopped into sticks small enough to be inserted into the calabash. Then a stick is put in the fire, and after it starts burning and emitting smoke it is removed and placed in the milking calabash to clean the inside. The calabash becomes very clean and the medicine in the form of smoke kills germs and bacteria and prevents further contamination. The medicine also has a nice smell that people love and keeps the milk clean and tasting delicious.
Mama Seela Nengai Lemtunde, just as other Maasai women, cleans the calabashes with a medicinal tree known in Maa as oloirien. This tree is found in the Oldoinyo Sambu ecosystem. When I asked her why she prefers that area, she commented that the place has a spiritual history and that everything there is not only physical but also spiritual. It is a ritual place that needs special respect and attention. She added, “The trees, herbs, and shrubs that are there are life-giving and will help women with safe child delivery, while also serving to wash calabashes and scent them with the smoke of life.” Mama Seela Nengai Lemtunde is also a traditional birth attendant with immense Indigenous knowledge and is relied upon in Emboreet village for both her knowledge and her charisma.
The place has a spiritual history and everything there is not only physical but also spiritual.
The calabashes that are used for milking cattle are also used to store milk for small children. It is believed that giving them milk using those same calabashes will give them a blessing from the spiritual forest. There is a young lady who is fond of giving milk to her child using a small calabash washed and smoked with the nice natural scent of the oloirien tree from Oldoinyo Sambu. Her name is Nemayan Leberet, living in Emboreet. She is now known in the community as a traditional healer.
Nemayan’s expertise started when she was studying in secondary school. One of her classmates was very sick and went through many hospitals seeking treatment, but she never got better. One day Nemayan asked her classmate whether she could treat her, and the student agreed. Then they also asked the headmaster and he granted permission for the treatment. Normally, the Maasai healing process Nemayian used requires butter and other animal fats, but those weren’t available at the school. So, Nemayan innovated: she went to the school kitchen and asked for kerosene. Then she made the sick student lie down and applied a little kerosene on the place that hurt. She held in her hand an object made up of pieces of cloth twisted into a conical shape, lit it up, and placed it under a small cover. This procedure is to make the aching organ go back to its normal position. The exercise is repeated for four consecutive days.
From that day on, Nemayan became a traditional healer and started treating people. Having tested the new method and having seen that it works, she now uses it along with the traditional ones. Small children are treated in two days, while adults are treated in four days. She has helped a multitude of people. She gets most of her traditional medicines from Oldoinyo Sambu.
It is truly important to protect this area as a territory of life for future generation and as a vital part of Emboreet village’s heritage.
Watch a video of Mama Seela Nengai Lemtunde cleaning the calabash with medicinal smoke and Nemayan Leberet feeding her baby with a calabash. Video: Alois Porokwa
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Support the Cause: Indigenous Maasai pastoralists are mostly marginalized and very affected by the climate crisis. The Maasai have immense Indigenous knowledge and heritage that needs to be revived and revitalized to address these challenges. Donate to assist in building a cultural center that will encompass all the Maasai Indigenous knowledge and heritage. Research and learn about the Maasai, their culture and traditions, and how they lived amicably with nature for centuries. Contact NALEPPO to donate on Instagram @naleppo15 or @aloisporokwa, on LinkedIn @aloisporokwa, and email aporokwa@yahoo.com
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Alois Porokwa, a man aged 61, is a Maasai Indigenous pastoralist from Emboreet village and director of NALEPPO, an organization that promotes the rights of Indigenous Peoples, especially the Maasai Indigenous pastoralists. He was raised and schooled in Emboreet with great knowledge of his community’s culture and traditions tied to the land and the natural resources that have kept his people alive to the present.
